Dive Brief:
- HSBC bank announced on May 14 what it claims to be the world's first commercial trade-finance transaction via blockchain, according to Business Insider.
- The transaction, for a shipment of soybeans traveling from Argentina to Malaysia, was completed by HSBC and Cargill via an R3 blockchain platform.
- Gartner estimates business value-add of blockchain to reach $3.1 trillion by 2030, but its survey of 3,000 CIOs indicates most companies aren’t interested in adopting blockchain in the near future.
Dive Insight:
Twice this year, soybeans have been traded using blockchain technology, each time on a different blockchain platform. The success of the transactions suggests blockchain could be applicable to variety of industries and help authenticate products as well as eliminate the "paper trail" of verification at every stage of the supply chain.
In January, ING also used blockchain in the soybean supply chain, shipping U.S. soybeans to China and becoming the first fully-fledged agricultural trade conducted using blockchain, participants told Reuters Monday. Louis Dreyfus Co. shipped the beans to China via the Easy Trading Connect (ETC) platform.
Worldwide spending on blockchain solutions is forecast to reach $2.1 billion in 2018, more than double the $945 million spent in 2017, according to the inaugural Worldwide Semiannual Blockchain Spending Guide from International Data Corporation (IDC).
IDC expects blockchain spending to grow at a robust pace over the 2016-2021 forecast period, with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 81.2% and total spending of $9.7 billion in 2021.
Blockchain spending is contingent on the success of trials and pilot projects — like the ones Cargill and ING completed — so as long as these trials continue to succeed, more companies may invest in the technology.
